NEWSLETTER July 2015 CHARITY AT BRANNAM MEDICAL CENTRE 2014-2015 £1000 Staff News There have been changes in the treatment room in the last couple of months. Sister Kate Pouncey has left Brannam Medical Centre after 18 years. A number of patients will recall seeing her on a Wednesday morning or attending her diabetic clinic. Kate continues as School Nurse at West Buckland and working on the family farm. Our lead diabetic Nurse Sandy Norman has reduced her hours so is now working Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday. For other diabetic queries on other days we have Amelia Baker, who previously worked on the community team. Lesley Calcutt joined the team this year, moving from a management role in the community back to hands on patient care. We are trying to appoint another senior practice nurse to complete the team but have not yet managed to recruit anyone. Unfortunately, this has meant that some of our patients are having to wait longer than we would like for appointments with our nurses in chronic disease clinics. We have not been able to cover clinics when our senior nurses were on holiday or absent due to serious family illness. We have also had some changes in the reception team. Annette Wilkins has stood down as Reception Manager after 7 years. She will continue as personal receptionist to Dr Taylor. Rebecca Prosser has taken on this role and is in charge of the day to day running of reception. She is supported by Susie Wheaton who has the unenviable task of sorting the doctors rotas. Kelle Watts, who completed her Medical Receptionist apprentice course in the spring will be leaving us in September to take up a place at the University of the West of England to do midwifery, whilst Becky Goulding who started with us as an office apprentice in 2012 has been accepted to do a Foundation Degree in Business and Administration. Billie-Jo Isaac will be joining us shortly as our new Medical Reception Apprentice. ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION SERVICE Prescriptions will now be sent to your nominated pharmacy electronically (EPS) instead of having your paper copy. This will not affect the way you collect your medication or how it is delivered to you. If you would like to OPT OUT of this change, please contact the surgery. This year at Brannam Medical Centre we have been supporting two charities, North Devon Free Wheelers, a volunteer service which undertakes to deliver urgently needed bloods, drugs, transplant tissues and other medical requirements between hospitals and blood transfusion banks. This is done by volunteers riding their own motorbikes between 5pm and 6am Mon–Fri and 24hrs during weekends and Bank Holidays. Our second Charity was ‘Send a Cow’. A charity that sends Local Training Officers to countries across Africa to help needy communities with training in sustainable organic farming and animal husbandry. These communities are provided with training and livestock and are then encouraged to pass on their skills to others in their community. The charity committee would like to thank you for all your support during last year and hope that this will continue in the next year. If you would like any further information regarding our adopted charities please ask at reception. OUT OF AREA PATIENTS From January 5 2015, all GP practices in England are free to register new patients who live outside their practice boundary area. This means that you are able to register with practices in more convenient locations, such as a practice near your work or closer to your children’s schools. This will provide you with greater choice and aims to improve the quality of access to GP services. The practice will decide, following a review of your completed registration form, whether to accept you as a regular patient or accept you without home visiting duties (if it is clinically appropriate and practical for you to be registered away from home). For more information, visit NHS Choices to see what practices are accepting out of area patients. FLU CLINICS We are now taking bookings for flu clinics. If you think you are eligible and would like to make an appointment, please contact reception. Follow us on www.brannammedicalcentre.com Like us on CQC REPORT The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We had our CQC inspection on 18th November 2014 and the report was published on 9th April 2015. Our report was very positive. Thank you for all your support and to all our staff for their hard work. ‘Our key findings were as follows: Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.’ To see the report please visit www.brannammedicalcentre.co.uk. FRIENDS AND FAMILY TEST RESULTS MAY & JUNE 2015 Thank you to all our patients who are completing our friends and family cards. Your response is really appreciated to see how we can make your experience to the Doctors better. Below are the latest results that we have for May and June. May: Friends and Family Test We would like your feedback on the care or treatment we give you any time you visit your GP or have contact with the Practice. Tell us what is working and what we can improve. You can say what you think without giving your name and we will use the information to plan improvements to our services. To give your feedback, pick up a form from Reception or visit NHS choices. For more information on the Friends and Family test or to leave a review visit www.nhs.uk/friendsandfamily June: 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Extremely Likely Likely Neither likely nor unlikely Unlikely Extremely Unlikely Don’t know From the results of the Friends and Family test, we are looking at how long patients are waiting for appointments and how we can improve this to make your visit more efficient. Follow us on Unfortunately, we are unable to send out unused medication to Africa. We can still accept unused dressings and equipment. If you have any unused medication, please take it to a pharmacy for disposal. www.brannammedicalcentre.com Like us on MAKING YOUR HEALTH RECORD WORK BETTER FOR YOU What are we trying to achieve? Many people think that their GP health record is available to all healthcare professionals involved in their care, but this is not always the case. At the moment, each professional you see keeps a separate record, This can mean some important information not being communicated between health services as well as it could be. To help, New Devon CCG are launching a local shared record programme that will make it possible for health professionals to view relevant information about you. How will a shared record help? A shared record means that:  Your healthcare professionals have the most up to date and accurate information about your health, medications and treatment.  You get better advice and safer and more effective care  Mistakes are avoided  You will not have to repeat your medical history so often What information will be shared? The information shared includes your name. address and date of birth and a summary of your health information including:  Diagnoses and test results  Any allergies you might have  Medications & Treatments you receive How will it work? At the start of your treatment, you will be asked for your permission to view your shared record. If you agree, then the health professional will only be able to view the record whilst you are being treated. Can I say no? You can choose not to share any information with anybody outside your GP surgery. Speak to your GP’s receptionist if you wish to opt out. Who will be able to see my record? Only health professionals you give permission to and who are directly involved in your care will be able to view the shared record. This may include staff from:  Out of hours GPs  Ambulance Services  Local hospitals How will you keep my information safe? All your information is stored using the most secure technology available and is covered by strict confidentiality guidelines and the Data Protection Act 1998. For security the shared record is accessed via a secure NHS network, not the internet. For more information email us on: [email protected] This practice is part of the local shared care record initiative. Did you know … a summary of the information displayed on the screens and posters at the surgery is now available. Download a copy from the Latest News page of our website www.brannammedicalcentre.com Follow us on www.brannammedicalcentre.com Like us on